A Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday issued fresh hearing notice in the case filed by the former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Temisan Omatseye challenging alleged deliberate sabotage of the Cabotage Act.
The development, Omatseye claimed, had resulted in foreign vessel owners operating on Nigeria’s coastal waters fraudulently.
Omatseye, who instituted the suit through his company, Polmaz Nigeria Limited against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) and other foreign shipping companies, alleged that government agencies had been undermining the provisions of the Cabotage Act to the detriment of Nigerian ship owners.
The ex-NIMASA DG is alleging that foreign shipping companies had been operating on Nigeria’s coastal waters without obtaining licence or waivers from the Minister of Transport as required by the Cabotage Law.
The Coastal and Inland Shipping Act 2003, otherwise known as the Cabotage Act was enacted to make trading on the Nigeria’s territorial waters the exclusive preserve of Nigerian-flagged vessels.
The law, however, provided windows for waivers in order to engage foreign vessels when there are no indigenous vessels to do the jobs.
But for a decade of the existence of the law, indigenous ship owners have not benefited from the law, as government agencies in oil and gas industries have continued to engage foreign companies in Nigerian waters under the disguise of the waivers.
When the matter came up on Wednesday before Justice Ibrahim Buba, the defendants were not represented in court, while Omatseye, who is also a lawyer represented his company.
The judge thereafter issued fresh hearing notice and ordered that all the parties in the matter be served with the fresh notice.
The matter was consequently adjourned till February 18 for hearing.
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